Days Ahead
by light-and-Shadows-Mist-and-ice
Summary: A failed mission to bring down the Red Room left Shield with a few burnt files and a six year old girl with massive trust issues who barely spoke a word of English. When the director of SHIELD decides to take care of the girl, both find out that this may be the family they need. KID NATASHA
1. Chapter One - Natasha's Escape

AN: Carin: This contains a couple of references to agents of Shield, but it's just like two characters that show up sometimes, it will be Melinda May and Victoria Hand. They're two Shield agents and they're both pretty cool. They're not super important to the plot of this though, if they were I would have put this in the crossover section.

Trigger warnings: Mentioned Abuse, PTSD, Anxiety, Mild tones of depression, Childhood mental illness, mention of car crashes, mentions of guns and occasional use of guns , mild violence, mentions of war and other fighting, occasional fighting,

Other warnings: ocassional mild swearing (Hell, Crap, Freaking, Screw, ect, nothing that would be censored on tv)

Chapter one

Fury had never really planned on having kids. Six months ago that had changed. Now he was a little bit stuck in a twin sized bed, surrounded by stuffed animals with a feverish six year old on his chest. Natasha herself was asleep but her fever was still taunting him. It kept going to right under forty degrees Celsius, which would warrant the ER and probably give him a full on heart attack before dropping back to thirty seven and a half. Now it had restarted it's slow mount up and was currently resting at thirty eight, nearly thirty nine. Natasha let out a small sob as her eyes fluttered opened. She pulled the blanket around herself tighter despite the sweat covering her forehead. She looked up at him before lying back down,

"Does your throat feel any better?" he asked. She shook her head into his chest,

"How about your chest," he was met by another shake of her head. He went to ask another question but realised the girl was already sleeping again. Fury closed his eyes and thought about seven months prior when on a Friday night he would be working. It was a strange concept really, and not really something he thought he could go back to even if he wanted to. He didn't.

Sure in June things had been different, but now they were better.

Six months earlier

Natasha was scared. There were people yelling and running and she was supposed to be running out of the back door, but she didn't want to do that. She was going to run. She was going to run out of a different wall and she was going to get away. The Red Room was going to be behind her, she was leaving, she would figure it out from there. Natasha pulled on her small sneakers and looked down a hallway to see if there was anyone around. Natasha ran down the hall holding her blanket that was holding her things over her shoulder. She took the staircase and ran down the stairs. All the doors but the front one were unlocked for the first time since she had been here because they were trying to get everyone out before the people out front could get in. She was planning to climb out a window once she was down there, or just wait for the shield agents to break down the door. She wasn't sure if she trusted them but the Red Room didn't and that was good enough for now. She reached the front door just as it was knocked down by the agents outside. She screamed, they screamed a bunch of English words she didn't know and someone grabbed onto her. She screamed and kicked at the agent for a minute but the man was saying nice things, even if she didn't understand. She went limp and looked up. A man wearing a business suit was carrying her towards a something else,

"Who?" she asked jabbing a finger at his chest,

"Shield, Coulson," he responded "kto?" he asked pointing at her,

"Tasha," she responded, she wasn't a part of anything so she just stuck with her name, at least the part of it she would trust them with,

"sem'ya?" he asked. Natasha shook her head she had no family, at least not living family. They had all been killed a long time ago. The man locked eyes with her and gave her a look of pity. Usually, she would have been angry but right now she was too scared to care. The man said some more English words Natasha didn't know, but he said them softly and the words themselves sounded soft and quiet and she was very scared so she clung tightly to the man and tried to make out the sounds of what he was saying. She eventually resigned the concept and just tried to look around the area. They were getting pretty far away from the Red Room and Natasha felt safer as they walked away from it. Coulson tried to place her on a bed and she screamed,

"Niet!" she yelled clinging tighter to him. She had decided to trust this man for the time being but that didn't mean she trusted who he worked for, or who he worked with. The man said something to one of his colleagues who then looked at her. Her brown eyes softened as she saw Natasha,

"She's tiny," the woman breathed out a sad tone in her voice. Natasha knew what that meant, it meant she thought she was a baby. She wasn't.

"Yeah," Coulson responded with the same tone that made Natasha consider kicking him. She decided not to just in case that made him decide to leave her here. He said something to the women and she nodded. The woman's Russian was shaky as she looked at Natasha and struggled out a few sentences but Natasha picked up what she was saying. She told her that her name was Melinda May and that Coulson would stay with her but she had to sit on the chair so the medical examiner could look at her. Natasha didn't like medical examiners so she shook her head. She didn't know what they were but they sounded like some sort of doctors and doctors were mean. They stuck things in her arms and legs and they stuck things to her head and they never said sorry and they yelled or laughed at her if she cried. Still, she nodded. She had decided to trust Coulson so if he was right there she would talk to the medical examiners, as long as they didn't poke her. Then she would probably hit them, or maybe not.

She liked to think about hitting or kicking people who were mean, but she was too scared to do it. It was still nice to think about sometimes.

Natasha loosened her grip on Coulson's neck and dropped to the ground. She sat on the table he had tried to place her own. It was set up like a bed, with a blanket for a mattress and a top sheet for the blankets. Suddenly Natasha remembered her own blanket grasped in her hand. She pulled the blanket and the things stuffed inside it close to her chest. All that was in it was a change of clothes, her jacket and a Swiss Army knife she had pickpocketed from some guy who had come into the Red Room about a year ago. No one had ever noticed, so it had stayed hidden in her pillowcase. She had only taken it out on days they made and checked the beds.

The blanket was the most important thing to her, she had had it always. Plus if she lost it she didn't get another one. You didn't get a new blanket until you were twelve, that was still seven years away for Natasha, or maybe it was six now. She didn't remember what day it was but she knew it was June and that was when her birthday was. June 25th, not that six years old meant a lot to her. Five meant she had started training, six just meant the older girls were a tiny bit nicer.

She didn't have to turn six there now, or maybe she already had, she didn't remember.

"kakoy eto den'?" she asked the medic as he moved towards her,

"dvadtsat' 'shest," he responded. She was almost six then six then. Tomorrow. Well sort of tomorrow, it was the middle of the night. Some kids got presents on their birthdays, she felt like this was definitely a present. A really good one. She had been at the Red Room three years now and that was a long time. These shield people were scary but also kind of nice, at least Coulson was, and Melinda was pretty nice too. She bounced up and down on the bed, it was hard but it was nice to remember she was here.

She didn't know where she was going but it would be better than here. Suddenly Natasha felt really tired and wondered if this was adrenaline crash. She stood up from the bed and rushed back over to Coulson who was still the only one here who she trusted. She stood on her tiptoes and managed to barely reach one hand around Coulson. Luckily he took the hint and picked her up. She put her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

Natasha woke up in a bed. An actual bed, not a table with a blanket mattress or a red room bed with a tiny blanket. Just a bed, with a big blanket. Her blanket was pulled to her chest by her hands like some sort of teddy bear. She sat up and took in her surroundings. The room was dark blue, there were two beds and she was in one of them. Both had grey comforters and white sheets. There was one night stand with two picture frames on it. Natasha grabbed the picture closest to her and examined it. It was Coulson, Melinda May, and a third woman with brown hair in a tight bun. They were all dressed fairly formally but they had big smiles and all three were laughing. She reached for the second photo as she noticed movement in the other bed. She froze as the figure turned around revealing Melinda's face. She sighed a bit and grabbed the second photo. In that one Melinda was wearing a long white dress, a wedding dress maybe. There were two other women in the picture, one was the brunette from the first picture but her hair was down in this one, the other woman looked quite a bit like Melinda but her hair was shorter. The other two women were wearing grey dresses which made Natasha think it probably was Melinda's wedding photo. There were two parts to this picture frame, but the second one was a bit smaller. That one had a picture of Melinda's and Coulson in it. It looked like the same day but a different place. She wondered if Melinda and Coulson were married. She looked at both of their hands in the photo. Melinda had a ring but Coulson didn't. She noticed that there was another photo underneath it and started to turn the frame over as Melinda woke up. Natasha put the frame right way up and looked at Melinda looked at her.

"Wedding photos," Melinda said with a sad smile. Melinda was saying the words in English but she was hearing the Russian in her ear a minute later. Melinda noticed her confusion,

"It's a translator, It'll let you know what we're saying," she told her, "and, we have some in too so we know what you're saying, " Melinda gestured to her ear. Natasha nodded. It was a bit confusing hearing the words in two languages but she could manage. Melinda grabbed a brown paper bag with little handles from the side of her bed and handed it to Natasha,

"These are for you, " she said. Natasha put the bag next to her on the bed and looked inside. She reached inside the bag and grabbed onto something made of a soft fabric. A shirt probably she guessed, "It's just some clothes, you can use the bathroom if you want," Natasha nodded and slowly walked to the bathroom with the bag.

She pulled the contents out, there was a blue shirt, a yellow sweater with a hood, and a pair of shorts that were made out of stiff but soft blue fabric that Natasha didn't think would be too good to fight in with little yellow flowers on them. There was also some socks and some underwear. Natasha looked into the bag to check if she'd forgotten anything and pulled one last thing from the bottom. A pair of grey sneakers. She hadn't had shoes with laces since she was little but these ones had laces. She didn't know how to tie them. She changed into the new stuff and looked down at her socked feet. The socks were white with grey heels and toes. She probably didn't need shoes inside, she grabbed the shoes and started to carry them back to the big room but then she noticed there was another door in the bathroom. It was a little door probably for maintenance or access to something but she would probably be able to fit through it and figure out where she was and if she could trust these people. She glanced at the big door one more time before opening the small door. It lead to a small passage filled with wires that Natasha followed until she found another little door to open. She had to push on it a bit more than the other one but it opened with a loud pop. The door didn't lead to a bathroom it lead to an empty hallway. Her head turned both ways as she tried to decide where to go. There were voices to the left so she decided not to go that way. She wondered if it was her birthday yet. There were no clocks or calendars around. Natasha decided she was hungry and decided to look for food. She didn't know where to find food here. Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by bumping into a large man.

Fury was having a normal day. Until he bumped into a small girl in the hallway. He figured she was probably the daughter or niece of some dumb new agent who hadn't read the handbook thought that a shield base was a safe place to let kids roam around. He had nothing against agents bringing kids with them for a visit, but letting them walk around without any supervision was just dangerous. He looked down at the little girl looking up at him with wide eyes,

"Are you lost?" he asked. The girl shook her head, "Are your mom or dad around," she waited a minute then shook her head. "Well do they work here?" he asked,

"No," she said calmly. She seemed to have some sort of accent, maybe this was some European tourist who'd gotten separated from her family and wandered into the first building she saw. Then again she had said she wasn't lost.

"Well where is your family then?" He asked. The girl looked calm as she shrugged. He noticed that she had a shield made translator in her ear which meant some idiot agent had indeed lost a kid on the base.

"Why don't we go find your family?" he asked holding out a hand to the girl. She stared at his hand for a minute before smiling grabbing his hand and following him down the hall.


	2. Chapter two- Natasha's friends

Chapter two - Natasha's friend

**_Trigger warnings: Mentioned Abuse, PTSD, Anxiety, Mild tones of depression, Childhood mental illness, mention of car crashes, mentions of guns and occasional use of guns, mild violence, mentions of war and other fighting, occasional fighting,_****_Other warnings: occasional mild swearing (Hell, Crap, Freaking, Screw, etc, nothing that would be censored on tv)_****_If Natasha speaks full sentences in English it's because she's saying it in Russian but the other person is hearing it in English through their translators_**

Natasha didn't know how she was going to tell this man that she didn't have a family around to find since no one around here seemed to speak Russian, this man didn't have a translator and she didn't speak enough English to tell him. At this point, she had just decided to follow him. She could probably run fast enough to get away if she needed too, although this man didn't scare her. Not how Coulson was now. At the moment she had decided to trust Coulson but now he seemed scary. She wondered if she would feel that way about this man too, but she wasn't so tired now. She was thinking better. She still didn't know his name, she didn't know how to ask that either. She couldn't say much in English and she couldn't write in it at all. She could understand this guy at least because of the translator, but he didn't have one so he couldn't understand her. She was stuck in a tricky situation. Natasha watched as the man used a key on a semi-opaque door. He opened it. There was a desk, a computer and some files. It reminded her of the office they sent you to if you got in trouble or someone from your family died in the Red Room. It was also where they gave the older girls their extra ration slip when they completed a mission. Natasha didn't think that was what this room was for though. Every room in the Red Room was plain white. There was no pictures or decorations allowed. This office had pictures of people on the wall and an orange cat was sleeping in the corner on a little pillow. Natasha smiled at the cat. She liked pets. Her family had owned a little dog when she was younger but she didn't know what had happened to him.

"That's Goose," the man told her. She nodded and started to take a step towards the cat. The man put a hand on her shoulder,

"Maybe let Goose finish sleeping, he doesn't really like people waking him up," Natasha nodded at his statement. Natasha followed the man to the desk and sat down on the floor next to him. He leaned in the microphone next to the computer,

"However has lost their kid, she has been found and is now in my office please come to get her," he said into the microphone. Natasha wondered if Coulson would be mad at her. She hoped not, or maybe if he was this man would let her hide behind his desk. It was a big desk, probably if she hid behind it she'd be safe. Natasha curled her legs over one another and put her head in her hands. She wished she could talk to this man he seemed nice. While she was distracted he had come to sit next to her on the floor. Natasha didn't want to have to leave this office. Once she did she didn't know what would happen to her. She didn't have any family, not in Moscow, or Russia or Europe and certainly not in America which was where she thought she was now. Maybe Canada.

"Where?" Natasha asked the man looking up from where her eyes were staring at the floor,

"Where are we?" the man clarified. Natasha nodded.

"Washington DC,"

Fury didn't know how this kid didn't know where she was and now he was getting a bad feeling about this whole situation. He decided he wasn't letting this kid leave his sight until he had the full story or a social worker he personally knew was here to take over. Even then he wasn't sure he would entirely leave the case alone. He was worried about this kid. He didn't know what but there was something far behind the innocence of her eyes that made him think that she had seen things a kid her age probably shouldn't have. It had to tie into the translator somehow.

A knock on the door interrupted the quiet of the room previously only filled by the girls soft humming,

"Come in!" Fury yelled. Agent Coulson walked in with Agent May lingering near the doorframe. There was almost no sign of distress in either of their postures but their faces told different stories.

"Hello sir," Coulson started, Fury cut him off before he could continue,

"You and May were the ones who lost the kid?" he asked,

"Yes she was saved during our Red Room mission sir," Coulson told him.

"Have you gotten Social Services yet?" Fury asked. The girl over at him and only then did Fury realize he was having this conversation from the floor. He stood up as Coulson nodded.

"They got here about half an hour ago,"

"Go and get them and bring them back here," Fury told him. Coulson looked confused but nodded and walked out of the room. May took her place on his right side and he heard them talking as they walked away. Fury looked down to where the girl was sitting and noticed that she had tucked herself behind his desk. Where she was now looking blankly at the wall. Fury sat down across from her and noticed that her expression didn't change as he sat.

"Hi," he said. The girl snapped out of her trance and waved, "I realized that I never told you my name, I'm Fury, what's your name?"

"Tasha," the girl answered. He nodded,

"Do you know if that's your legal name, Tasha?" Tasha only shrugged in response,

"Is that short for Natasha?" he said emphasizing the first syllable of the name.

"Yes," the girl whispered. Fury nodded.

"No one is going to hurt you here Natasha," he paused, "I promise you that's not what we do here," sure they hurt people at Shield but certainly not kids who were scared out of their minds, he was certainly very ready to hurt whoever had made this kid terrified. Natasha looked at him and put her hand up with her pinky sticking out. Fury smiled and hooked his pinky with hers.

Cheryl Brown had been a social worker for ten years and this was still the first time she had been escorted through a building blindfolded. Somehow this was already her most confusing case ever and she hadn't met the kid yet.

"You can take the blindfold off now," said the agent who was taking her through the agency, she ripped it off and shoved it at him. She knocked on the door in front of her and gave the man a death glare as she walked into the office without waiting to be let in. In the room, a man was sitting on the ground next to a girl with red hair surrounding her face.

"Sir the social worker is here," said the agent walking in behind her. The man looked up and stood up off the ground.

"Director Nick Fury," he said reaching out his hand. Cheryl grabbed it and shook his hand,

"Cheryl Brown, Social Services, I'm here to represent the best interest of the child," she told him, "from what I've heard based on circumstances your organization needs to keep an eye on her through one of your agents,"

"Correct,"

"Do you know of any agents with foster care licenses?" she asked. The man nodded,

"I do," he told her,

"Really?" he nodded again,

"At Shield, our protocol is to be prepared for anything, that includes children in need of homes," he paused, "or de-aged agents," he added under his breath.

"Of course I'll need to see your qualifications, and examine your house and record," the man nodded,

"I'll email you my records and qualifications now, you can use one of our computers to check it, we can leave to inspect my house whenever you're ready," This man was certainly a government agent. She had dealt with government agencies before, FBI, CIA, even military, they all had the same know-it-all attitude and she was not surprised to add Shield to her list.

"I have my laptop on me, but thank you for the offer," she sat down on the couch that rested across from the desk and pulled her laptop out of her. The man typed a collection of what she assumed was codes into his computer before looking up at her,

"The files should send any second," the notification appeared on her computer screen and she clicked it. She verified his credentials with the system and found no issues,

"I'll need to write a file out for her which will require a private area, what do you know so far?"

"That you're going to need a translator, "

Natasha sat on a chair in an empty office, empty other than the social worker sitting across from her. There was a large mirror on one side of the room that Natasha recognized as one-sided glass. She waved at what she assumed was a window on the other side of the wall. The social worker lady was wearing a translator in her ear too,

"Who are you waving at Natasha?" asked the woman. Natasha pointed at the window mirror. The woman turned around and looked at the wall, "Is that your imaginary friend?" she asked. Natasha shook her head. She didn't have imaginary friends. She wasn't very good at imagining things.

"It's a window," she said figuring the Russian words would translate to English. The social worker nodded at that,

"Does the window lead to the outside?" she asked. Natasha squinted at her and shook her head.

"It leads to another room," Natasha told her.

"Who's in the room?"

"Maybe the man with the cat," the women took a moment as the translator picked up Natasha's words then nodded,

"Who else could be behind the window?" she asked. Natasha shrugged. She didn't know, and she didn't know why this lady thought she would.

"Well who do you think is a possibility?" the social worker asked.

"I don't know, I might not even know them," Natasha wondered if she looked hard enough if she'd be able to see through the mirror part of the window. The woman nodded,

"Is it okay if I ask you some questions?" Natasha nodded. "Can you tell me your full name, Natasha?"

"Natasha Romanova," Natasha swung her feet and looked at the things in front of her on the table. There were crayons, a pad of paper, a small toy car and a doll. The lady had told her she could play with any of them. She grabbed onto the doll and tried to smooth back its hair. It was too tangled. She tried to use her fingers as a brush as the social worker wrote something down.

"What's your birthday Natasha?" the woman asked. Natasha set the doll down and grabbed a crayon so she could write down her birthday in numbers.

25/6/04

She wrote out trying to make it as neat as possible. Natasha curled her knees up to her chest as she pushed the paper across the table. She grabbed the doll again and moved it around the table like she was walking. She mumbled a couple of words but there wasn't a second doll to talk back.

"Well happy early birthday then," the woman said. Natasha smiled at her she put the doll down. She grabbed a piece of paper and a crayon. She started drawing a ballerina with her left leg up. She added the tutu and small gun in her hand like one of the older girls who they were allowed to watch if they got free time. They did sometimes if they listened and Natasha always went to watch the older girls dance. Natasha dropped the crayon and continued to stare at the window mirror as the social worker asked her a variety of questions.

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	3. chapter three- Fury's right hand

Chapter three- Fury's right hand

**Note: this AU is an endgame free zone. I haven't seen it yet but I know someone's going to die, so this is a happy endgame free zone UPDATE: Have seen Endgame now, this is DEFINITELY an endgame free zone**_Same trigger warnings apply_

Maria Hill was Fury's right hand for a list of reasons. The most important being that nothing fazed her. He sent her a text that said 'hey accidentally adopted a kid. Please help,' she responded with, 'okay where are you,'. It was also the reason she was his closest friend. Fury crossed his arms as he looked through the window that lead to an interrogation room where the social worker was putting together a file on Natasha. Natasha clearly knew the room's purpose and that she was looking into a two-sided panel of glass based on the fact that she was looking above her own head and to the place where an adult's head would be. He wasn't sure if it was an intimidation tactic or she was hoping to see through the glass. The door clicked open and Fury turned towards it.

"I'm going to need an explanation on the text," Maria told him, "because that's not normal, 'we might be attacked by aliens' Shield weird, that's 'my third cousin seven times removed just died and apparently I'm her next of kin so now I have to take care of her kid' movie made for nine-year-olds weird,"

"More like 'Russian orphan, seemingly scared of most people, knows what double sided glass is despite being six' weird,"

"That's," Maria let her words hang,

"Sad," he suggested. Maria nodded,

"Are you sure you know what you're doing here Nick?" she asked. Fury nodded,

"Mostly," They let silence drop between them, "I'll have to change my guest room up a bit, make it a bit more kid-friendly,"

"Plus some childproofing probably wouldn't hurt," Maria added. They both watched the girl through the glass despite the fact that she was unmoving other than her blinking eyes. Maria leaned against a wall,

"We might have a car seat somewhere in storage, she would probably still need a five-point harness right?" she asked, Fury nodded,

"She's only three foot, so that would probably be best,"

"That's under the growth chart,"

"Iron and Calcium deficiencies, the doctor said he would find a pediatrician that could take her tomorrow to get her on some supplements and see what vaccines she might need," he told her. Maria sighed,

"I'll go up to storage, see what I can find, text me your location if you move," she told him. The door clicked as she left the room.

Natasha jumped to her feet as the social worker finally finished her file. She gave the mirror window a final wave as she walked out of the room. Coulson was standing outside of the door along with Fury and a woman who Natasha recognized from the pictures on Melinda's desk. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun and she stood with an intimidating posture that Natasha tried to copy to the best of her ability. The woman looked down at her and smiled. Natasha moved over to Fury and stood at his side. He smiled down at her,

"Hey kid," Natasha waved at him. He offered her an open hand and Natasha excepted it and stepped a bit behind him. Everyone here was tall, that included Fury but he was nice so far so she was going to hope he'd keep her safe if one of the other ones were mean. None of them had been mean yet but Fury was the only one who had promised her he wouldn't be. Pinky promised even. That was important, her Mama and Papa had taught her that. She didn't remember much about them. She remembered that her Mama had Black hair and her Papa had red hair like hers, and she remembered that she had a baby brother named Alexei and a dog. Natasha looked up at the grown-ups, she didn't want to listen to them all talking anymore. They were really loud and it hurt her ears. Plus she was hungry and she didn't know what time it was even though she knew the day now. It was dark back in Moscow but now she was in Washington DC and she didn't know what time it was here or what time it would be in Moscow or if it would still be dark or if it would be light or if it had already been light and now it was dark out again. There were no windows in this dumb place either. Natasha pulled the translator thing out of her ear. And shoved it in the pocket of her sweater, it made it easier to ignore the sounds flooding into her ears when it just sounded like babbling. She closed her eyes but found that not understanding what people were saying just made her notice more sounds around her. There was clock somewhere in this hallway making a loud tick, tick tick and somewhere nearby some machine was humming and something was making a loud bang on this floor. It sounded like gunshots but maybe it was something else. Natasha opened her eyes a bit but found the light too bright so she shut them again. Natasha felt a small tear slip through her tightly closed eyes as she curled her toes trying to keep her feet off the hard carpet as much as possible. Natasha dropped Fury's hand and plugged her ears. She was hungry and it was too loud and her stomach felt all twisty. Suddenly all the grown-ups were turning to her and saying things that sounded like questions. Natasha grabbed the translator from her pocket and shoved it in her ear,

"She hasn't eaten yet," someone said. The woman from the photos put a bag on the ground and dug through it muttering things Natasha couldn't hear. She pulled out a banana and handed it to Natasha,

"Here you can eat this," she told her. Natasha peeled it and started slowly eating it finding having a task to do made her feel a bit better. Natasha avoided eye contact with the others still feeling a bit overwhelmed. She was a bit embarrassed over nearly having a meltdown. They all kept looking at her with the same pity Melinda had. Natasha went to grab Fury's hand but found that he was kneeling on the ground,

"You okay?" he asked. Natasha nodded and reached her hand out again Fury smiled at her and grabbed her hand as he stood up. Someone said something to her but Natasha didn't listen as they walked down the hallway. Natasha followed closely behind while eating her banana. They walked into a small room with metal doors where Fury pressed a button. They all stood still for a few minutes and then the metal doors opened again revealing a garage. Natasha opened her eyes wide as she followed the group of adults into the garage.


	4. Chapter Four-Fury's House

Chapter four- Fury's house

**an: Carin: I'm sorry this took so long. It was going to go up last Saturday but then I got sick and couldn't speak for two and a half days and then I was still sick all week. thank you to all the people reading this,****Enjoy**

Chapter four- Fury's house

The car ride had been short but the shaded windows had given Natasha little insight to the time of day. Instead, she had spent the car ride having a conversation with the woman, whose name she had learned was Maria since she spoke Russian. Now they were standing in a smaller house garage while Fury unlocked the door. The door clicked open and Natasha rushed through the door and wiped her socks off on the mat since she still hadn't put any shoes on. The door lead to an open living room with a kitchen in one corner and a staircase as the only wall, although there was a door in the middle of the stairs.

"Hill do you think you could make Natasha something to eat while I show Ms. Brown around?" Fury asked Maria who nodded. Maria smiled down at Natasha and lead her towards the kitchen table. Fury and the social worker disappeared up the stairs. Natasha sat down on the chair and tucked her knees underneath herself to reach the table.

"Sorry, I don't know a lot of food names in Russian," Maria apologized opening a pantry door, "would tomato soup and some carrot sticks be okay?" Natasha nodded her head and watched as the woman opened the can of soup, mixed in some milk and turned on the stove. She put the pot down and sat down on a chair across from Natasha. Neither of them spoke. Maria's fingers tapped on the table and Natasha watched as they hit the surface. Natasha turned around in the chair and watched the stove. It was one of those stoves that the little fire came out of the burners when it cooked things. Natasha watched the fire flicker slowly. She wondered if the stove type of fire burned your hand. She considered reaching out and testing the idea but decided if it did that would probably hurt, plus it probably would burn since it had to make the food all hot so it would cook. One time the kitchen had nearly burned down in the Red Room even though they had the other type of stove. They had all been supposed to go out to the garden really quickly but Natasha had stopped for a minute and watched the fire even though she knew it was dangerous. She had gotten in trouble for it later though. This fire wasn't dangerous though. At least she didn't think. Maria stood up and stirred the soup with a wooden spoon she had left on the counter near the stove. She put the spoon down and pulled herself onto the counter turning to Natasha with a small smile. Natasha wondered how long it would take the social worker to evaluate the house's safety. She put her arms on the back of the chair and tried to put her head in them but found she was too small.

"Are you tired?" Maria asked. Natasha nodded, she didn't know why, she had only been awake a few hours, but she was. Maria turned to the soup again and jumped onto the floor before giving it a final stir and turning off the stove.

"We should wait for it to cool off a bit," she told her. Maria came to sit at the table and Natasha turned around and buried her hands in the pocket of her hoodie before resting her head on the table.

She realized that all of her things were still at the Shield base. She wanted her jacket and her blanket. She wondered where her shoes had gone. Melinda had given her a pair (that she had left there too) but someone had taken her's. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest.

"V Chem delo*?" Maria asked. Natasha didn't know how to tell her what was wrong. Lots was wrong, she didn't understand things here. It was loud and big and she couldn't talk to people. She didn't want to cry again, they'd probably get mad. Only Babies were supposed to cry that much. Natasha decided she would be angry instead of sad or scared. They might get mad then too but then she could be mad right back,

"Oni vzyali vse moi veshchi*" she hissed, curling her brows downward and squinting her eyes. Maria frowned.

"Kto*?" she asked. Natasha pointed at the woman angrily. Maria nodded and took out her phone. She typed some things into it quickly and then smiled at Natasha. Natasha kept her glare. She pulled her knees up to her chest deciding it made her look less intimidating if her feet clearly could not reach the floor. A couple of minutes passed and Natasha kept her angry look. Maria's phone buzzed and she looked up at Natasha,

"Melinda's going to bring your things over, she'll be here in about an hour," Maria told her. Natasha suddenly felt bad and dropped her angry exterior,

"Thank you," she mumbled out, trying to pronounce the words right,

"No problem malyshka," Natasha smiled at her newly given nickname. Fury and the social worker came down the stairs. All of the adults started talking in English again and Natasha sighed and took the translator out of her ear. The social worker left the house. Natasha couldn't help but be a bit happy, she didn't like that social worker much. She put the translator back in her ear before Maria and Fury started talking.

"I made soup," Maria told him. Fury nodded.

"Thanks," Fury grabbed a ladle and three bowls. "Are you staying for lunch?" he asked. Maria nodded. Natasha felt like she was eavesdropping so she pulled out the translator and placed it in her pocket. Fury passed her a bowl of soup which she put on the table. Natasha waited until everyone was sitting before she slowly started eating. She finished half of it faster than she probably should have and felt a bit sick. Usually, Natasha had smaller portions than this and she never had something like a Banana beforehand, so she was shocked when she found herself continuing to eat after her stomach settled a bit, although more slowly than before. It had been a while since she'd eaten. Even without the plane rides or the social worker talking to her for a long time. At least it felt like a long time, sometimes things felt like a long time but they weren't. Natasha looked at the clock on the wall but found that it was one without any numbers so she couldn't read it very well. Natasha continued to eat her soup and looked out the window, it was still pretty bright so that told her it was probably the day time. Then again there were places where the sun was up all the time. Maybe Washington DC was one of them. Natasha stared at her empty soup bowl, she didn't know how she would sleep here if it was.

She didn't know how she was going to sleep here regardless.

*What's the matter

*They took all my stuff

*Who

_Malyshka: Russian: Baby Girl_


	5. chapter five- Natasha's Birthday

Chapter Five- Natasha's birthday

Natasha rolled around on the large bed surrounding her. This bed was weird. It was way too big. Natasha covered herself with her blanket and sat up. She played with the hem of the shirt she was wearing. Maria had left after lunch and then come back later and had brought Natasha a shirt she could wear to sleep, it was way to big on her so it went a bit below her knees, like it was a dress. Natasha opened the curtains of the room and looked out the window. She noticed another window with a boy about her age sitting in it. His was a bay window that seemingly lead to a small bedroom that she guessed attached to an apartment for the size of the building. He had blond hair that went up in small messy spikes and was wearing purple pajamas while staring at something off in the distance. Natasha knocked at the window and wondered if he could hear her. He didn't look like he did. Natasha waved towards him trying to get his attention. The boy looked at her and waved, Natasha waved back. The boy smiled at her and then closed his curtains. Natasha closed hers too and layed back down. Natasha curled her self up again and to the blanket she had in her hands. At least she had confirmation that there was other kids around here and that everyone wasn't so big.

Natasha never woke up later than five thirty and today was no different. It was her birthday and she was in a new place but she still had training. She wondered where people trained here, and if their training was different or the same. She grabbed her clothes from the end of the bed and changed into them before she pulled on her shoes and walked out of the room. The house was quiet other than the sound of her own breathing. She wondered if that meant no one was awake. Not that there was a lot of people around to be awake. Maria had left the night before, so really there was just two people here, and she was one of them. Natasha quietly walked down the stairs, not that there was much down there. Just furniture stuff. There was bathroom door down here, in addition to the door under the stairs, which she had learned led to an office and was always locked. It seemed like this was the closest she was getting to a place to train. She found the clearest part of the downstairs floor and started her stretches.

She finished her workout with little difficulty, it was mostly muscle memory at this point so she didn't struggle with it much any more. She remembered when she had first started her training she had been terrible. Her muscles had ached all the time and she cried every other day. Now she didn't do that, now she went through her exercise without complaint and then she waited for breakfast. Then she went to her basic English lessons and then dance class, then lunch, then fighting practice until dinner then more stretching and then sleep. Repeat, repeat, repeat. She didn't know how things would go now. It was just her and one grown-up now. No groups of teachers or other kids. Natasha liked not being surrounded all the time. It was also dead silent and she like the quiet.

On the other hand there was only was grown-up which meant that if even one grown-up was asleep she had no way to get food. Unless, she could get it herself...

Natasha ran across the room and grabbed a chair. She wouldn't be able to reach the cupboards from the chair but she would be able to reach the counter to stand on it to reach the cupboard. She placed the chair in front of the counter and stepped on to the chair. There was still a pretty big space in-between the chair and the counter so she braced her hands on the counter as she pushed her shoes to the ground. She pulled her left foot up and prepared herself to pull her other foot up. As she started the motion she felt her sock slip and fell backwards taking the chair with her and creating a large 'thump!' It took a second for the stinging to set in but then it did and it spread through her back and chest and the back her head. She let out a small whine as a couple of tears fell down her cheeks. She heard pounding on the stairs and pushed herself against the wall. Fury rushed down the stairs. She couldn't tell what he was saying but she was pretty sure he was mad. He looked a bit different than mad but not much. Then he noticed her curled on the floor and his face softened and any part of his face that looked like it was mad didn't any more. He crouched down to her level. Natasha looked at him.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. Fury reached out a hand. Natasha took it and let him help her stand up she grabbed the translator from where it sat in her pocket and put it back in her ear.

"It's okay, I'm not angry," he told her, "I was just worried you had hurt yourself. Did you hurt yourself at all?" Fury asked. Natasha nodded and pointed to the place where her head had hit the floor.

"Here can I see?" he asked. Natasha nodded and turned around. She waited a minute, "Just a little bruise, you should be fine, tell me if you start to feel sick though,"

Natasha nodded and stood up,

"Food?" she asked. Fury nodded,

"If you want we could go to a restaurant, it is your birthday after all," he offered. Natasha nodded and smiled a bit. Fury smiled back,

"Well there's a little restaurant about a block and a half from here, we could take a walk down there, then we'll have to walk to the office quickly so that I can go get goose. Natasha smiled wide,

"Goose!" she exclaimed, "Koshka*!"

"Do you like cats?" Fury asked. Natasha nodded ,

"Koshka," she repeated happily.

"I like cats too," he paused for a second, and then stood up from the floor. "I guess we should probably get your hair brushed out before we go eat," Fury pointed out, Natasha nodded in response, "Can you go upstairs and grab the hairbrush in the second drawer of the bathroom cabinet?" he asked, Natasha nodded a final time before running up the stairs.

Fury examined the two uneven pigtails in Natasha's hair. He wondered if he could find some sort of ribbon to distract from lopsidedness of them. He doubted he even had curling ribbon, let alone some sort of fabric ribbon that wouldn't tangle into the girl's hair. Fury sighed,

"Well they're not great, but they'll do," he told her, "Okay, go get your shoes," Natasha nodded and ran to where she had left her shoes, Fury smiled and walked towards the door to wait for Natasha who ran into the room a few seconds later.

"Ready to go?" Fury asked, Natasha nodded. The two stepped into the warm June sun. It was only about a block to the restaurant so it didn't take them long to walk into the small air-conditioned building. Fury had known this place was some sort of 1950's themed diner, but now being here he was pretty sure it was less about theme and more about age. The peeling wallpaper implied that this place had been around at least that long, but the food was good according to Maria. He didn't see a place where you waited to be seated so he lead Natasha over to a table. There were crayons and a paper placemat already there and Natasha started drawing immediately once they sat down. Fury smiled at her.

He really didn't know a thing about parenting but he kept telling himself that no first time parent did. The anxious part of his brain kept responding most first time parents didn't have trauma stricken six year olds on less than an hours notice. She was still a kid though. He knew at least one thing about kids: they needed homes, and he could at least figure that out.

A woman with blonde hair and a waitress outfit walked up to them,

"Hi, I'm Edith, I'll be your waitress today, are you ready with drink orders or do you need a few minutes?"

"I think we'll be a second," Fury told her. The woman nodded and turned away. He turned to Natasha, "What do you want to drink?" he asked. She shrugged. "How about some milk? You're a bit low on calcium,"

The girl's eyes lit up,

"Ya mogu shokolad*?" she asked. Fury laughed,

"Sure, it's only your birthday once a year, might as well," he answered. She smiled and he smiled back. Natasha returned to her drawing. The waitress came back over to the table Fury gave her their orders and she started to write then down. She glanced at Natasha's hair and then looked over to Fury,

"Your wife out of town?" she asked with a slight smile,

"Huh?" Fury asked. She gave him a look,

"Messy pigtails, eating out, plus you're letting her order off the grown up menu. Signs point to your wife is out of town and she usually handles the morning routine," the woman assessed nodding her head. Fury shook his head,

"Not quite," he said, "Natasha's just come to live with me, and I don't necessarily know much about hairstyles," he admitted. Natasha looked up at the mention of her name, seemingly having been unaware of the conversation before. The waitress smiled at Natasha who waved shyly back at her.

"Well if you want after you finish eating you could come to the back and I could show you a couple of hair techniques," she offered.

"That would be great," he responded. The woman smiled and walked away. Fury looked down at what Natasha who had continued her drawing. It looked like a ballerina, but there was something on the tip of the ballet shoes where Natasha hadn't coloured them in. It was only as she grabbed the red crayon and coloured the edges of the shoes that he realized what the blank space was for. Blood. She was colouring blood. He had known the Red Room was messed up, they treated those children like weapons that could be disposed of if they weren't serving their purpose. This was something else though. Whatever they were doing there had this six year old so accustomed to bloodied clothes and shoes that she was drawing it on a restaurant's paper place mat. She thought nothing of it.

This thought made Fury incredibly angry and he swore to himself in that moment that he would bring the Red Room down. Even if he had to bring every last one of them to justice himself.

**AN: Carin: I know, I know, this took me so long, but it's a pretty long chapter, and was hopefully worth the wait. Thank you again to everyone who revieved and followed,****Until Next time,****Bye,**


	6. May and Coulson's files

Chapter six- May and Coulson's Files

Phil Coulson was not one to give up, but these files… no this whole case was starting to seem like a dead end. So far he had a seven year old Dor-something something-wood, a Y-blank-g with a fully burned out last name, and a Na-missing-sha Roman-something which he had managed to fill in the blanks for. Everything else was just dates, numbers, unintelligible signature scribbles and a couple of what seemed to have previously been pictures attached to the files, and the program he had set up to cross reference with kids in the Russian and surrounding countries foster systems were returning no matches. He was about to try to put in different filters to try to ad in any missing children to the algorithm when he heard his door snap open. He turned his chair around to find May walking in, silent as ever,

"You know you could tell me when you walk into a room," he told her.

"I like watching people jump," she responded, "And besides we're spies, it's training," he snorted

"I await blissfully for the day the director gets stuck in one of your pranks,"

"I'll take my chances," she walked towards the desk and looked at the files before pointing at a slightly altering line of text that seemed to be at the bottom of every page "I think this bottom part is code, but we are unfortunately a bit short on decoders who speak fluent Russian," Phil sighed. Another damned dead end. Melinda reached for the Y-G file and started reading it.

"They must of used turpentine or something to burn these…" her thoughts trailed off before she closed off her sentence, "These files are translated," she said. He nodded,

"Yeah the English version is right over-"

"No I mean this wasn't written in Russian, these aren't typical grammatical patterns, this was written in Mandarin, and then translated to Russian," she told him,

"Okay?"

"No not okay, back when I was growing up, this one time my mom was complaining about having to translate all the files for this case she was a part of," she turned around and grabbed her phone before she started punching numbers into it. "Then I zoned out for a minute and they were talking about some place taking kids and training, I figured they were talking about schools or something so I stopped listening," she hit the dile button on her phone,

"But if I'm right the CIA has all the old Red Room files,"

As far as Birthdays went, Natasha was having a pretty good one.

She had eaten what she wanted for breakfast, and it had been a lot of food (she had eaten almost all of it though). They had gone to the base and Maria had given her a present, and so had Coulson and Melinda, Which had been a bit overwhelming, but it was nice of them. She also hadn't had to train at all today which was making her a bit fidgety until she ran around in the backyard for a while (which it turned out was a lot more fun than training).

Now Fury was making lunch and Natasha was watching a cartoon she didn't quite understand. There was Russian subtitles on it but the whole concept was confusing. It was some creature that looked vaguely like a mouse that was always with a very small cat. She couldn't think of any time that a cat would be any size smaller than a mouse other than maybe if it was a very big mouse (maybe a rat instead) and a very young cat. A cat that big was still supposed to be with its Mama though, and it was supposed to eat milk, not spaghetti, and definitely no meatballs like this show was suggesting. She figured she'd have to learn to like these kinds of things if she was going to stay here. That was normal for here, that was right.

Natasha flopped onto her side as the mouse and under sized cat tried to catch the meatball. When would this show end.

"Are you tired?" Fury asked. Natasha shook her head. She pointed at the screen and yawned. She didn't like the show but jokes were normal, so maybe that made up for it. Fury grimaced at the television,

"Yeah these things don't really have a lot of story," he agreed. "You can turn it off if you want, it's the big red button on the remote," Natasha took the suggestion and switched off the television. She grabbed the doll she had sitting next to her on the couch. It was what Maria had gotten her for her birthday. It was a very fancy doll. At the Red Room they had a few but most of them were old and falling apart. This doll was not she had even been in a box at first, one that looked like a crib since she was a baby doll. She was not falling apart and her clothes could even be changed, although Natasha didn't have anything to change her into. She figured such a beautiful doll deserved a beautiful name but she hadn't thought of one yet. She thought maybe Esfir. She liked that name. Plus that just seemed right,

"Esfir," she said. Fury turned around from where he had gone back to cooking,

"Huh?" he asked. Natasha pointed at the doll,

"Esfir," she responded. Fury nodded,

"That's a pretty name," he agreed. Natasha smiled, proud that Fury agreed with her. He finally turned around holding two plates with sandwiches on them. Natasha was glad. It was kind of hard to talk to Fury because they spoke different languages, but he was nice so she liked it when they were together. She was trying not to get too attached though. Adults tended to change rules and break promises, but she could enjoy being happy for now. She sat Esfir on her lap. As Fury put the plate in front of her,

"I think we can eat in the living room, just this once," he said. Natasha nodded. They both smiled. "After lunch we're going to go get you some clothes and some things for your room,"

Natasha nodded. She didn't really understand why she needed more clothes or anything for her room but she had decided just to go with it. The two spent the rest of lunch in silence and Fury put the plates in the sink before he pulled his jacket from earlier back on. Natasha jumped to her feet and they both walked to the garage together. Fury opened the door to the backseat and Natasha climbed into the car the best she could and tried to ignore the fact that Fury helped her move one of her feet up. Help made her feel pitied. Then again she was glad not to fall again. Natasha buckled her own seat belt and watched as Fury closed the door and walked to his seat.

"Let's head out kid,"

AN: Carin: Fun fact this chapter is unedited because I really just wanted to get this up before it had been a full month since I last updated. Another fun fact this took me so long because originally this chapter lead in a totally different direction and I was having a bunch of trouble writing it. Anyways, hope you enjoyed,

Carin


	7. Chapter Seven- Natasha's memories

**AN: Carin: THIS STORY HAS SIXTY FOLLOWERS! I'm freaking out just a bit.**

Chapter seven- Natasha's memories

Fury was quickly finding that having a young kid in a crowded place was very stressful. Natasha was tiny and even with her holding his hand she could easily get lost in this place. Natasha didn't seem to like it much here either, but when he'd asked if she wanted to leave she had declined so they were still in this mall. He was really hoping when they got to the first store Natasha would sit in the cart that he grabbed. Then at least she would be slightly taller and he wouldn't have to worry about her being whisked away by some crowd. He was almost to the first store when he felt a tug at his hand. He looked down at Natasha to find both of her arms up in the air. He smiled and pulled her up on to his hip. This was much better. Natasha nodded sharply at him and he nodded back. Now with slightly less concern over losing Natasha or her tiny legs being unable to keep up. They reached the first store and Fury suddenly realized he had no idea what he was doing. He hadn't paid attention to fashion since the eighties and he hadn't paid attention to kids fashion ever. Natasha seemed just as confused as him at the stacks of shirts and rows of dresses and pants. This was one of those children's stores, with bright colours and clear boys and girls sections despite the fact that the sizes were still exactly the same.

He didn't know what kind of clothes Natasha wanted and she didn't really seem to know either. He decided to walk around for a while and wait for Natasha to show interest in something. They walked a few laps before he realized his plan wasn't working,

"You can tell me if you like something," he told her. Natasha nodded but didn't reach for anything for a few minutes. Eventually, she pointed at a skirt. It was yellow, and kind of frilly but it gave them a good starting point,

"Do you like that?" he asked reaching for it. Natasha nodded and Fury grabbed it off the rod, "great let's go get a cart then,"

After that shopping wasn't easy but they were slowly getting somewhere. They had some looked at leggings in every colour, and Natasha had decided on black, yellow, and pink. They had gotten plain shirts in every colour of the rainbow but red, which Natasha had a clear and understandable distaste for. They had gotten a couple of skirts and a few dresses, which Natasha seemed to have a taste for, that she very badly wanted to hide, and now he was trying to talk her into getting a jacket,

"U menya sviter," she insisted. Fury sighed this had happened with every article of clothing they had bought. 'I have shorts' 'I have pants' 'I have shirts'. Natasha did not see the practicality in having more than two of any given article of clothing.

"Natasha it could get dirty, or it might get so cold you need a jacket and a sweater," he tried to explain. Natasha gave him a suspicious look, "Will you at least look," her face stayed unaffected, "please?" he tried. Natasha considered his please for a second before nodding.

"Otlichno*" she resigned. They started walking down the jackets and sweater isle and Natasha remained unfazed from her new place in the shopping cart for what felt like an eternity until suddenly her eyes lit up and she pointed at a jacket,

"You!" she half screamed happily. Fury turned to see a black leather jacket hanging on the wall. It did look quite a bit like his own, "me!" she added, "you!" she pointed back at the jacket.

"Do you want that one?" he asked. Although her facial expressions made him sure of the answer before she nodded her head. He put it in the cart.

Shopping for clothes had taken quite a while, not to mention talking Natasha into at least looking at decorations for her room. Natasha was still having trouble understanding having things outside of practicality, which he could understand, but he didn't want her feeling like a guest in the place he wanted her to think of as home. Part of that was making it so the guest room was no longer the guest room, but Natasha's room. He had talked her into new sheets and a blanket by telling her that the white sheets on her bed would be hard to wash and that it would be good to use the grey duvet cover as a backup. She had agreed to dark purple sheets and a yellow duvet cover with white flowers. He had also convinced her that the door sign she kept looking at would help guests tell that her bedroom was not the bathroom once they used the stickers to write her name.

They had gotten one of the little car stroller things in-between stores and although Natasha seemed unimpressed by it at first she did now seem to be enjoying it, and he had to admit that Natasha with her hands on the plastic steering wheel, steering accordingly to every turn and wearing the leather jacket they had bought her was about the cutest thing he'd ever seen.

"Is it okay if I take a picture of you?" he asked. Natasha looked confused for a second but nodded anyways. Fury went around to the front of the car and pulled out his phone, "smile," he said taking the picture. Natasha smiled although she did still look a bit confused. Fury smiled back at her and went back to the handle. "We've got one more place to go," he told her as he walked towards their final destination.

Natasha hadn't been sure what to expect from this final store but it was not this. This place had tall shelves filled with brightly coloured objects. They had dolls and swords that were very bright and not very sharp. Natasha was not sure what land of confusion she had walked into. As they walked further into the store she found that one side was filled with dolls and dresses and the other side was filled with stealth suits and weaponry. There were children everywhere, screaming and crying and pointing. She kept looking at the bright guns and tutus and the tall ceilings and then suddenly it was

"Opyat' Natasha*" Ivan. Why? Why was he here? Natasha tried to move but found there was something holding her back.

"Natasha!" Trouble. She was in trouble. No. No. No. Why was she here? No, she was supposed to be in Washington DC. Fury had promised he wouldn't hurt her and he had brought her here. Back to Moscow. Back to the Red Room. Back to Ivan. She could feel him digging something into her hip. Natasha started sobbing before she heard someone saying her name softly. The hard feelings on her hip went away, she blinked her eyes a few times and slowly she remembered where she was. Fury was in front of her and a small crowd was standing around them. Natasha wanted them to stop looking at her so she grabbed onto Fury and hid her head in his shoulder as he stood up.

Natasha swore she could feel all of them looking at her. Even as she felt Fury walking away and them heading out of the store. She didn't understand what was happening.

**AN: Carin: And so begins the angst. I'm sorry if I didn't write the flashback part right, if anyone has any tips or info that they'd like to share, that would be very helpful. Also, Natasha and Fury's matching jackets were actually from a comment asking for Natasha to dress like a mini Fury, And although I already had plans for Natasha's wardrobe I couldn't resist her at least dressing a bit like him. One more thing, if you want to see some of my art then you should go on Pinterest and look up Age of Heroes AU.****Hope you enjoyed****Bye!**


	8. Chapter Eight- Natasha's enemy

Chapter eight-

Fury sighed as he finally reached where his car was parked. He opened the driver's door with Natasha still wrapped around his neck and tossed the shopping bags in the passenger seat before sitting down.

"Natasha, do you think you can talk to me?" he asked, he received a headshake in response. "Okay," he sighed. He could feel her chest shaking like she was crying. He suddenly regretted not having read any sort of parenting books last night, but those would be about babies, or toddlers, the closest he was going to get to advice was maybe something on kids with anxiety or adoption. International adoption that was something he had to read about, but right now he had to figure this out.

"You're not in Moscow any more, you're not with the Red Room, and I promise they can't hurt you. I won't let anyone hurt you anymore," Natasha's head shot up from where it was plastered to his chest,

"Zachem*?" she asked. Fury paused for a second.

"Because we're going to be a family, and that's what families do, they take care of each other, and protect each other,"

Natasha seemed to consider his statement for a minute and then stuck out her pinky finger. Fury smiled and hooked his pinky around her's.

"Okay, let's head home," he suggested. He went to open the door but Natasha had crawled into the backseat before he could. He laughed, as she buckled her seat belt.

"N-a-t-a-s-h-a," Fury said,

"N-a-t-a-s," Natasha repeated the first few letters before looking up at Fury.

"H-a,"

"H-a," she finished,

"There you go," Fury praised. Natasha smiled, "You ready for flashcards, or do you want a snack first?" Fury asked. Natasha spent most of her time in his office at the Shield headquarters, of course this meant he had to change his schedule a bit, but he was figuring it out. Luckily Natasha was a pretty calm kid as long as she was in a controlled environment.

"Snacks please," she responded. Fury smiled as the girl grabbed her backpack,

"I've gotta get some work done, okay?" he told her, Natasha nodded. As Fury stood up from the table that had been added to his office, a knock came from the door.

"Come in!" he yelled sitting down at the desk. Coulson and May walked in. Coulson placed a stack of files on his desk,

"These are the files you had asked for sir," Coulson told him,

"Thank you Coulson," he said looking down at the files. May and Coulson started to walk away but May seemed to notice Natasha in the corner.

"You know sir, we have a couple of hours of free time while our files run through the system, if you'd like I could take her down to the gym, so she can burn some energy," May suggested, Coulson nodded,

"There's a bunch of mats, and climbing structures down there meant for training, but they could probably entertain a kid too," he added in. That did seem like it would be a good idea, and the gym wasn't too far from his office he'd only be a few minutes away. He stood up from his desk,

"Just give us a minute." he sat down in the chair next to Natasha, "What do you think, do you want to go to the gym, or would you rather stay here?" he asked Natasha. Natasha paused for a second,

"Gym, please," she responded, Fury nodded,

"Okay, well if you need me, just tell May and Coulson," he told her ,Natasha nodded.

Natasha liked Melinda and Coulson. She didn't know them very well, but they had saved her from the Red Room, and for now that was enough. Plus the gym here sounded kind of fun, and even if it wasn't she was tired of sitting around all day. She liked Fury's office, but she had been there almost every day for three weeks, the exception being Saturdays, Sundays, and the time that she had to go to the doctor's and had been so upset that they stayed home for the rest of the day. It was starting to get kind of boring, but she didn't like to complain, and she got to do something different now. Because she had found that little door in the wall last time Melinda was making her hold her hand. Coulson used some badge thing to open the door.

The gym was a large room, that seemed to be mostly empty. There were a few people using workout equipment that was on on side of the room, and a large open space on the other side.

Melinda and Coulson started walking toward a door and Natasha followed them. Inside were punching bags, hand wrap, boxing gloves, some assorted balls, and a lot of mats.

"Are we fighting?" Natasha asked. She didn't want to fight. Shield wasn't going to make her fight were they?

"If you want we could get a punching bag and show you some things," Melinda offered. Natasha quickly shook her head and stepped away from them both

Coulson took another step into the closet and pulled out a ball,

"That's fine, how about we play soccer?" he asked. Natasha narrowed her eyes in confusion, "Uh... Football?" Coulson asked,

Natasha remained confused,

"Futbol," Melinda tried. Natasha shook her head, "Well, it wouldn't work well with three people anyways,"

Coulson shook his head,

"No, now we have a mission, we have to teach Natasha soccer," Coulson argued, "I'm going to go look for a forth player, I'll be right back," Melinda shook her head as Coulson ran off,

"Here, come on I'll show you how to kick the ball," Melinda offered. Natasha nodded and followed Melinda to an open patch of ground. Melinda kicked the across the floor so that it was stopped by Natasha's sneakers.

"Okay, now use the side of your foot and kick it back to me," she instructed. Natasha nodded and took a step back. She kicked the ball. It went far enough, but it's final resting place was pretty far to the left from Melinda's feet.

"I'm sorry!" Natasha exclaimed,

"It's fine, good kick," Melinda responded, turning to grab the ball.

The two kicked the ball back and forth for a few minutes before Coulson came back with a boy about Natasha's age next to him. The two seemed to be talking, but Natasha couldn't hear their conversation until they got closer when she could tell they were talking about cars. Natasha stepped closer to Melinda. She was starting to think 'soccer' was some sort of fighting game. She stepped even closer to Melinda, and away from the other boy as him and Coulson neared.

"Nat, this is Tony, his dad works here too," Coulson explained. Natasha slowly nodded. Tony's dad probably didn't want him to fight, if they worked together maybe they could get out of here and find him or Fury.

Without thinking Natasha jumped forward grabbed Tony by the hand and started running. She immediately found herself stopped by Tony who didn't move. It felt like slow motion as they both fell to the floor.

"I told you she's probably crazy!" Tony exclaimed as he processed what had happened. Natasha felt his words sink in, crazy. She wasn't crazy, at least, she didn't think she was. "My dad said the Russians were going to take down America, and she's probably one of them in training or something!" He was kind of right about that. They had been training her , and they had said someday they'd send her to America. The Red room was bad but she was not. Not anymore, she wasn't like them, and she was going to make sure he knew that.

"No!" she yelled back at him. "Stop talking!" he just scowled at her.

"Alright!" Coulson interjected, "That's enough," Tony kept up his glare, which Natasha matched. She clenched her fingers into fists and wondered for a moment if she did want to fight him. He was annoying and it might feel nice to punch him in the nose. She decided against the thought. She didn't think she liked this Tony kid.

**AN: Carin: Okay so Tony and Natasha's relationship is off to a rocky start. I'm kind of just playing with the idea of a younger Tony trying a bit to hard to please and copy his father. Also hey it's another Avenger. More to come soon. Can't guarantee many of their meetings will go much more smoothly.****okay so now more on the whole AOS thing, don't read this part if you haven't seen the first two seasons, there is spoilers,****So, the will hopefully be an AOS fic in this universe that will go into Bahrain, and lots of other stuff, so yeah.****_translations_****_*Why?_**


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